Tuesday, 20 January 2015

Music publishers Edition Peters launch their new record label, Edition Peters Sounds, with surely one of the finest recordings of Faure’s Nocturnes currently available played with great insight by Daniel Grimwood

The world renowned music publishers Edition Peters have just
announced the launch of their new record label Edition Peters Soundswww.editionpeters.com/eps

The Edition Peters Sounds label plans to concentrate on
recording performances by the artists on its agency roster, as well as
releasing works from its artists and others drawn from the Group’s extensive
and famous publishing catalogue.

Nicholas Riddle, CEO of the Edition Peters Group said, ‘The
creation of a recording label within the Edition Peters Group is an exciting,
bold and positive development. It is not
unusual these days for organisations to operate an 'own label', and we do so in
order to highlight our artists and publishing catalogue. Run from our thriving Artist Management
company, EPAM, we can all look forward to listening to wonderful performances.’

Edition Peters Sounds is primarily a digital label, but with
physical CDs available at its artist’s concerts, from the label’s website and
from selected music shops.

The first release,
featuring pianist Daniel Grimwood performing Fauré’s Nocturnes, is now available
from iTunes, and is available from select CD shops and digital platforms from 10th
December 2014.

Daniel Grimwoodwww.danielgrimwood.co.ukhas a repertoire ranging from Elizabethan Virginal music to composers of the
modern day and enjoys an international reputation both as a solo and chamber musician.
He has performed in many of the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals,
including the Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room in
London, the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, Symphony Hall Birmingham, the Three
Choirs Festival, the Rachmaninoff and Gnessin Halls in Moscow, the Carnegie
Hall’s Weill Hall in New York, as well as concert halls in Germany, Austria,
Italy, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Estonia, Taiwan, Azerbaijan, Egypt and
Lebanon.

His musical interest started as a three year old playing
next door’s piano and from the age of seven he was performing in front of
audiences. He studied under Graham Fitch at the Purcell School, where he also
studied violin, viola and composition and later with Vladimir Ovchinnikov and Peter
Feuchtwanger. Although primarily a pianist, he is frequently to be found
performing on harpsichord, organ, viola or composing at his desk. Grimwood is a
passionate exponent of the early piano, and has given a recital of Chopin’s
Etudes on the composer’s own Pleyel piano. As a solo recording artist his
growing discography ranges from Scriabin on Somm Recordings to Algernon Ashton on
Toccata Classics. His recent discs of Liszt and Chopin, performed on an 1851
Erard piano, received a unanimous chorus of praise from the press.

On this new recording, Daniel Grimwood sets a fine tempo in
the Nocturne No. 1 in E-flat Minor, Op.
33, No. 1, full flowing yet with a languid quality before building in
strength, finely judged with a real sense of stature as well as some
beautifully crystalline playing. Grimwood brings a sense of languor to the
opening of the Nocturne No. 2 in B major,
Op. 33, No. 2 before some terrific faster passages, full of a lovely ebb
and flow and some brilliant playing in the more complex passages showing his superb
technique.

Nocturne No. 3 in A-flat
major, Op. 33, No. 3 brings a lovely breadth with a fine rubato and beautifully
judged tempo with an exquisite coda. Grimwood’s fine phrasing is to the fore in
the Nocturne No. 4 in E-flat major, Op.
36 taken at a lovely gentle pace, rising to some impressive passages before
the gentle coda.

There is some beautifully silken playing in the gentle
rhythms of the Nocturne No. 5 in B-flat major,
Op. 37 with more fine phrasing. The central, florid section receives some
very fine playing, fluent, with a fine even touch and a lovely sense of
continuing forward flow. Grimwood immediately creates a remarkable sound world
in the Nocturne No. 6 in D-flat major,
Op. 63, a restrained yet subtly coloured performance, conjuring a sense of
wonder and restlessness as we are carried through its arch like structure, with
this pianist drawing out so many little details and subtleties.

With the Nocturne No.
7 in C-sharp minor, Op. 74 Grimwood brings out so well Fauré’s dark opening
before leading us through the tragic and stormy journey of this remarkable
Nocturne, revealing so much, so many colours and sonorities, finding so many
emotions and revealing fresh insights before culminating in a beautifully
limpid coda. The short, fleeting Nocturne
No. 8 in D-flat major, Op. 84 is beautifully captured here, beguilingly
played.

Grimwood captures the elusive nature of the Nocturne No. 9 in B minor, Op. 97 brilliantly
before tackling the more advanced harmonies of the Nocturne No. 10 in E minor, Op. 99 with Grimwood showing complete
mastery as he builds the Nocturne, showing just how far Fauré had travelled
since his first Nocturne of c.1875. Nocturne
No. 11 in F-sharp minor, Op. 104, No. 1 brings a rather withdrawn nature
finely captured by Grimwood who builds the music wonderfully to the central
climax before falling to the resigned coda.

Grimwood brings much understanding and feeling to the angst
ridden rhythms of the Nocturne No. 12 in
E minor, Op. 107. Written in 1915 this is surely a reaction to the events
of the First World War with its sense of tragedy and foreboding. There is some
especially fine playing here, wonderful phrasing and sense of drama. A sense of
nostalgia affects the Nocturne No. 13 in
B minor, Op. 119 with Grimwood revealing all of its sense of reflection, at
times pushing towards a sense of despair. Written in 1921 this was to be his last
solo piano work. The music builds in anguish with this pianist finding so much
depth.

The opus numbers alone show that Fauré never intended these
works as a cohesive whole, yet how well they sit together especially when such
a fine pianist as Daniel Grimwood reveals so much.

This is an extremely satisfying disc and must rate as one of
the finest recordings of these works currently available. A very fine debut disc for Edition Peters
Sounds.

Grimwood is finely recorded at Nimbus Studio, Wyastone
Estate, Monmouth, UK. The booklet notes are minimal but given that the
repertoire is well known this seems to hardly matter.

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About The Classical Reviewer

The Classical Reviewer has been involved in music for many years, as a classical record distributor, as a newspaper concert reviewer and writer of articles relating to music as well as reviewing for Harpsichord and Fortepiano magazine.

He assisted in the cataloguing of the scores of the late British composer George Lloyd and has co-authored a memoir of his friendship with the composer.

Having a particular interest in British music, he regularly undertakes talks on Elgar.

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